eChapters

Introduction

Milk, an integral component of our staple diet is nature's most ideal and complete food. There is a long history and tradition of high consumption of dairy products in India. Consumption pattern of dairy products in India is quite unique and is centred on traditional products; however, novel products are gradually gaining momentum in urban areas. Despite being the largest milk producing country in the world, India accounts for a negligible share in the worldwide dairy trade. Domestic demand for dairy products is showing an increasing trend and it is expected that demand-supply gap will further widen which might transform India being a net importer of dairy products. The domestic demand for dairy products is showing an increasing trend and it is expected that demand-supply gap will get further widened. India, world’s largest milk producer has enough scope for diversified value addition as this can definitely assure a better margin of profit. However, for this, one has to maintain reputation and competitiveness in the market. To emerge as a leader in this competitive global market, continuous improvement of quality is highly essential. Safety, just as the other side of the coin is also of utmost importance to reinforce consumer confidence. Nowadays, quality is not a matter of choice but a necessity and even a responsibility of all stake holders. In the case of food, the term, 'Quality' refers to physical, chemical, microbiological, technological, economic and aesthetic characteristics. From consumer point of view, the word, 'Quality' embraces mostly the organoleptic characteristics like body, texture and flavour than the objective properties like fat, protein, lactose and acidity as determined by science based tests.

Food is a resource of immense importance and its safety in the whole production and supply chain, is very crucial. In the last century, drastic increase in the incidence of food borne illnesses, large-scale food poisoning outbreaks and surfacing of new foodborne pathogens and hazards were widely reported. Contaminants can enter food through various pathways in the food production process, and can occur naturally or as the result of inferior or inadequate production practices. Concerns on food safety are fuelled by the industrialization of agricultural production, liberalization of trade, tourism, food consumption pattern and food preparation practices. The availability of information through the mass and social media increases the number of reported cases of inadequate food safety. International competitiveness depends more on quality and safety concerns than on prices and this creates a need for safer food production and distribution practices.

Growing population has increased the demand on food supply. Providing safe and hygienic food to the population is an essential consideration. Food safety systems and tools need to be in place to assure safe food, until which the food businesses would not flourish or be able to build their reputation. Food safety systems and management tools are important as they assist food business organizations to build confidence in people regarding food safety.

Cooking oil when heated there will be some changes like its colour, flavour, smoke formation etc. One change is the change in total polar compounds (TPC). TPC is used to measure the quality of oil. The TPC value increases with the reheating of oil, higher TPC value means the oil having high contain of peroxide and hydro peroxide. FSSAI fixed the value of TPC at 25%, beyond of this value the cooking oil can causes health issues like hypertension, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease , liver disease even liver cancer.

Food safety is a discipline ensuring safe consumption of food without any injuries to human health. It is multifaceted and influenced by various factors including, food processing, handling and practices, consumer demand and their knowledge, globalization of world food trade, changes in food consumption pattern (Chen et al., 2020).

Previous Year Questions

1. CS 2015: Discuss the impact of rapid increase in population on food and agriculture (12.5 marks)

What is Food security?

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) – “when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.

It has Following Dimensions

• Availability: It means food production within the country, food imports and the stock stored in government granaries.

Food is essential for human survival. It provides the required energy and vital nutrients for sustainable growth and development. With the increase in population and awareness, the demand for nutritious, fresh and healthy food also increases. Although adequate food is produced in order to meet the increased demands, it fails to reach the consumers in need due to food Food Storage and Preservation Practices   35 wastage and spoilage occurring during various stages of harvesting, food production, storage and transportation. Gajanana et al., (2009) stated that there is a mammoth wastage of food post-harvest. It is estimated that 20 to 60 % of produce are wasted during and after post-harvest. 

Importance of Food Storage

Food storage is both a traditional domestic skill and is important industrially. Food is stored by almost every human society and by many animals. Storing of food has several main purposes:

•Storage of harvested and processed plant and animal food products for distribution to consumers

•Enabling a better balanced diet throughout the year

•Reducing kitchen waste by preserving unused or uneaten food for later use

•Preserving pantry food, such as spices or dry ingredients like rice and flour, for eventual use in cooking

•Preparedness for catastrophes, emergencies and periods of food scarcity or famine

•Religious reasons (Example: LDS Church leaders instruct church members to store food)

•Protection from animals or theft

Introduction

    1.    Food Science is the application of the physical, biological and behavioral science to the processing and marketing of foods (Margaret, 1968).

    2.    Technology can be defined as the science dealing with knowledge of doing things efficiently and effectively.

    3.    Food science helps us understand the theory example: what methods can best be used to store and preserve food to maintain quality and prevent spoilage.

    4.    Food technology demonstrates how the food is stored, preserved, processed and transported and has been responsible for development of new techniques for processing and preservation of food on a commercial scale and for packaging it in such a way that it can be sold conveniently.

    5.    Food science deals with the study of facts of the physical, chemical and biological sciences as they influence the processing and preservation of food.

    6.    Food technology deals with engineering and other scientific and technical problems involved in transforming edible raw materials and other ingredients into safe, nutritious and appetizing food products (Desrosier, 1977).

    7.    Food science is concerned with basic scientific facts about food, where as food technology concerned with the processing of raw materials into foods that meet human needs and wants.

    8.    Indian agriculture has undergone a sea change during the past half a century. Starting with the campaign for “grow more foods” in the forties, India reached self sufficiency during the eighties.

The proximate system of analysis consists of the analytical determinations of water (moisture), ash, crude fat (ether extract), crude protein and crude fibre. Nitrogen-free extract (NFE), more or less representing sugars and starches, is calculated by difference rather than measured by analysis.

Water

1. Water constitutes about 70 percent of an adult’s body weight and water (moisture) is the predominant constituent in many foods.
2. All foods contain varying amounts of water in the range of 20 to 90%.
3. The hypothalamus is a brain center that controls activities such as maintenance of water balance, regulation of body temperature, and control of appetite.
4. Moisture content of some foods

Introduction

Food adulteration compromises quality of foods and causes human health hazards is a menace mankind had been facing since ages. Spice adulteration scandals in the year 2004, Horse gate scandal in Europe during 2013 are famous examples of food fraud. Various forms of food adulteration and cheating such as substitution of cheaper food components in place of original product, addition of non-permitted substances, and false claims by misbranding or mislabeling are prevalent from time immemorial (Spink et al 2019).

Food fortification is the procedure in which micronutrients (essential trace elements and vitamins) are added to the food. As a public health policy fortification can be carried out by the food manufacturers or by the governments to help people in combatting dietary deficiencies within a population. Fortification can be done in food even if these nutrients are originally present or not. However, it improves the nutritional status of a population by overcoming the deficiencies of micronutrients. Deficiency of micronutrients is known as hidden hunger which is a serious health risk. Access to safe and nutritious food is a must.Due to the lack of consumption of a balanced diet, adequate micronutrients are not supplied to the body. Therefore, there is a considerable loss of nutrients during the processing of food. One of the strategies to address this problem is fortification of food.

Food preservation methods are important in order to avoid glut or shortage of food in the market. In addition it helps to increase the shelf life, maintain the nutritional and sensorial quality, facilitate transportation and improve the overall value of the commodity. Even though various methods of food preservation are available now. Most of the conventional methods are thermal preservation methods which may result in the loss of volatile nutrients and flavour, different sensorial modifications, microbial spread with or without gas production, damage to the microstructure, rupture of coating or packaging surfaces and microbial recontamination caused by non-hermetic closure.

Freezing is one of the most critical stages in ice cream manufacture because it creates the frozen structure while simultaneously incorporating air. This chapter explains the principles of dynamic freezing and the structural changes that occur as the mix is transformed into semi-frozen ice cream. It discusses ice-crystal formation, air incorporation, overrun, draw temperature, fat destabilization, and product condition at freezer draw. Different freezer systems and hardening requirements are examined, along with calculations related to output and overrun. The chapter also introduces ingredient feeders and ripple or ribbon systems. Understanding freezing technology is essential for controlling texture, body, meltdown, yield, and overall product quality.

INTRODUCTION

Preservation of food by drying or chemical means as by alcohol or acid fermentation and that by the use of ice is long recorded in history. With the advancement of science and the knowledge governing various unit operations in food processing, these food preservation techniques employing thermal, radiation, or low temperature or a combination of these have only got further refined as regards their viability and commercial applications. Process foods of different genre and cuisine, which include frozen foods too, are increasingly becoming popular the world over for reasons of quality, safety and year round supply of nutritious foods to cater to different niche segments of human society. Increasing health consciousness is buoying those processed foods which are preserved and stabilized using non-thermal technologies as these ensure retention of food nutrients to a better definition. Interest in frozen food also stems from need to deliver safe and nutritious foods with extended shelf-lives.

1. Introduction

Freezing is a method of food preservation that involves lowering the temperature below the freezing point of food generally -18 °C or below. During freezing of food the water present in them changes its state to form ice crystals. Human beings in the colder regions have used freezing as a means of preservation since they learnt hunting and gathering foods. The foundation of the modern frozen industry was laid in mid 1920 when Clarence Frank Birdseye, an American inventor used cold brine solution to chill packaged fish and extended it further for quick freezing of meat poultry fruit and vegetables. 

4.1 Introduction

A huge amount of waste in the form of liquid and solid is produced in the fruit and vegetable processing industry which causes pollution problem if not utilized or disposed off properly. Generally solid waste is dumped in local landfills, eaten and scattered by stray animals, which has now become a major cause of environmental pollution. The waste obtained from fruit processing industry is extremely diverse due to the use of wide variety of fruits and vegetables, the broad range of processes and the multiplicity of the product [79]. The solid waste from fruits and vegetables includes peel, stone, rag, seed, core etc is of economic value and can be used for manufacturing of various by-products [21]. The extent of the waste produced from processing industries of some of the important fruits and vegetables, is given in Table 1.

In India, utilization of fruits and vegetables for processing is hardly 1.8% of the total production. There were 5166 processing units till 1^st Jan, 2009 of fruits and vegetables products throughout the country. About 90% of these units are small scale units with annual production limit of 50-250 tonnes. These units have no organized methods of waste disposal. In certain places this waste is taken away by farmers for their disposal as cattle feed or field manure.

10.1 Introduction

Edible oil production is a separate sector of the food processing industry. There are several species of plants in the world whose oil can be utilized for human consumption for edible and non-edible uses. Though around 40 oilseeds are known, only around a dozen oilseed crops have become commercially important including ten seed crops and three tree crops. These oil seed crops (mostly annual) of commercial importance are groundnut, rapeseed-mustard, sesame, soybean, sunflower, cottonseed, safflower, niger, castor and linseed. The three major tree oil crops are palm, olive and coconut [63]. Besides these, the kernels of some other tree crops i.e. apricot, almond, walnut, hazelnut, olive (fruits are used), peach, can also be utilized for oil extraction purposes for edible and non-edible uses. Besides oil of the oilseed crops, the oils of tree fruits and kernels are also becoming popular very fast for various food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

Large scale requirement and local shortages of oils for various edible and non-edible uses have prompted the identification of many new sources of oil during the last few decades. They are ricebran, corn, sal, mahua, jatropha, kokum, melia, rubber, mango kernel, kusum, simarouba, neem, karanj, crambe, moringa, tumba, jojoba and tobacco seed etc. Most of these oilseeds and their products have wide utility in the specialty oils sector and are mostly used for non-edible purposes. Soaps and detergents, paint and varnish, lubricants, pesticides and medicines, cosmetics, bio-diesel fuel industry are the major consumers of these non-traditional oilseeds. All the oil crops will gain greater attention in future as they are renewable and biodegradable in nature [63]. List of oil crops have been given in Table 1.

Importance of Fruits and Vegetables in Human Life

Fruit is the edible, and more or less juicy, product of a tree or plant and consist of the matured ovary including its seeds and adjacent parts. Usually fruits are sweet, with a wide range of flavours, colours and textures.

Composition

Fruits are very poor source of protein and fat. Avocado is the exception containing 28% fat. Fruits contain high amount of moisture hence they are highly perishable. They are also good source of fiber. Fruits are not very good sources of calories. Fruits like bananas give fairly good amount of calories. Ripe fruit contains a higher percentage of sugar than unripe fruit does and the sugar is chief in the form of sucrose, fructose and glucose. Generally fruits are poor source of iron, Mangoes are excellent source of carotenes. Oranges are fairly good source of beta carotene. Guavas are the best source of vitamin C. Citrus fruits are good source of vitamin C. Cashew fruits are inexpensive and rich in vitamin C, although there is variation of vitamin content from fruit to fruit most fruits in the raw state contain some ascorbic acid. If fruits are bruised, peeled, cooked or exposed to air, large amounts of the vitamin may be oxidized. Apples are not only expensive; they contribute little to the nutritive value. They give fiber to the diet.